


Islands

by pixie_rings



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Comedy of Errors, F/M, Jack has no sense of shame, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Nightlight is a cutie, headcanon: the fanfic, shameless use of pop culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 18:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1559690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixie_rings/pseuds/pixie_rings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nightlight and Katherine return after centuries spent off-planet. They meet Jack. Nightlight gets the wrong end of the stick entirely. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Islands

**Author's Note:**

> I was doodling a mini-comic in my spare time. It's my headcanon that Nightlight would be really jealous of Jack interacting with Katherine. Also, how exactly could I tie the books to the movie without just handwaving and yelling "AU!"?
> 
> Apparently I thought more than seven thousand words on the subject was a smart thing to do.

The _Moondancer_ 's keel skimmed the blanket of moon-washed clouds beneath it, spraying them up like sea-foam in its wake. It almost seemed as if the moonlight were welcoming them home from their grand adventure beyond the skies of Earth. Katherine, the Guardian of Imagination, rushed to the side and peered over, gasping in delight at the rush of wind in her hair and on her cheeks, and the glorious silver light of the moon and Tsar Lunar's benign face within it.

Suddenly there was a shimmer of golden light. Another appeared, and another, and Katherine laughed, grabbing the rigging and rising up to kneel upon the rail. Following the ship and leaping with it were golden dolphins, laughing madly as only dolphins do, but that wasn't the only thing. They glittered in a way that could only mean...

“Dreamsand!” she exclaimed in wonder. “Why, the Sandman must be close!”

She turned, her brown hair whipping into her face, and smiled. With a zoom a marvellous and hitherto unknown contraption came towards the ship, making Kailash squawk in distress, and from it a familiar person was grinning and waving hello.

“Sanderson!” she cried, reaching out a hand. “Nightlight, come and see!”

Nightlight, the Guardian of Courage, had been in the crow's nest, and had of course seen everything. He darted down and landed on the rail, moonbeam-light and gave Sanderson Mansnoozie his own, wide grin of greeting. Sanderson hovered beside them, his sand-symbols flurrying above his head in a thousand different pictures and meanings. Katherine laughed breathlessly.

“Wait, Sanderson! I can't understood you if you speak so fast!”

But Nightlight could understand perfectly. He nodded, though Katherine didn't know what he was agreeing to, and hurried to the helm of their flying ship. Katherine made to follow, but then the ship dipped, diving beneath the ocean of silvery clouds, making her rather wet by the time they emerged beneath. She didn't have time to be annoyed at her companion, however, because beneath them was a carpet of lights.

How times had changed since the last time Katherine and Nightlight had visited Earth! Lights were now electric, and there were planes and trains and cars and so many other, wonderful devices Bunnymund was surely fascinated by. She gaped at the sprawling city and its huge glittering towers rising from the ground, its lights and its noises, even so late at night: the honking of horns and the beat of music. It was incredible.

The ship turned, ninety degrees, until they pointed due north. Sanderson's plane dissolved into dreamsand with not a sound and he landed on the deck of the _Moondancer_ , adjusting his collar fastidiously. He looked somewhat different from the last time they'd seen him, but that didn't stop her from embracing him tightly.

“Where are we going?” she asked of Nightlight when he returned to their sides.

“North Pole,” he replied, quiet as usual. Though he spoke a little more now they were older, he still wasn't the most talkative of folk.

“Why?”

“Sanderson said to,” Nightlight said simply, and for a while they sat and spoke with Sanderson, though he refused to reveal too much until, he explained, all the Guardians were present. This was a cause for celebration, and had to be done properly.

.

Jack Frost was busy changing the leaves in Central Park from dying summer green to brilliant autumn red when he noticed the shape in the sky. It shone against the dark overhead curtain of clouds like a silvery beacon. It made him think of the pirate ship covered in pixie dust from Peter Pan – the Disney one, not the book. He'd never really liked that book, that Peter was too much of a jerk.

He watched the ship go by with an awed expression, before he realised it was headed for the Pole and Santoff Claussen, which was where most magical vessels headed north seemed to end up. It didn't look threatening, quite the contrary, but... you could never be too careful. Abandoning his leaf-changing, he took to the Wind and headed north in the ship's wake.

.

North hadn't been expecting this, but he tended to like the unexpected, if it wasn't something negative. And the return of old friends was anything _but_ negative. It seemed like ages since he'd seen Katherine and Nightlight – even though Bunny would vehemently correct him that a couple of centuries were not 'ages' – but he didn't care. He'd rushed to the roof crowing with joyous laughter, as the ship steered itself down to Santoff Claussen.

The yetis tied the silvery lines thrown down to the onion domes, and a glittering gangplank descended to the snowy roof. With the rattle of wooden planks, Katherine rushed down and threw herself into North's arms.

“It's so good to see you!” she cried, burying herself in his white beard. The old wizard laughed and steadied her at arm's length.

“It is so good to see you too, little one,” he said, beaming at her, though she wasn't so little anymore. She beamed back, tugging on his beard.

“What's this?” she asked teasingly. North huffed, straightening up and stroking his impressive facial hair proudly.

“Is beard, Katyusha,” he stated, sticking his nose in the air. Katherine giggled.

Finally, Nightlight appeared as well, which was another excuse for North to dish out his signature bear hug to the slip of moonlight made humanoid, who chuckled as he was put down again, a little windswept.

“Come, come! Inside, we must prepare for party!”

“Party?” Katherine asked, unable to stop laughing as North took both her and Nightlight under his huge arms and steered them down into his workshop. The yeti and elves greeted them cheerfully, with plenty of smiles and gibberish and a few minor explosions, nothing too serious. Sandy followed, grinning like a lunatic.

“Friends returning is cause for great celebration, yes?” North said. Emotions of any kind had a tendency to fill him up until he couldn't feel anything else, and, as North was a particularly large and imposing man, these emotions were very great indeed. “Good food, good drink, good music, good company!”

He frogmarched them to the Globe Room and left them for the barest moment, just long enough to send out a summons. Obviously his fellow Guardians would be worried when they saw the Aurora, but he supposed they'd forgive him once they saw who was with him. Well, Tooth and Jack might. Bunny, he wasn't so sure.

When he turned around Katherine had an expression of awe on her face as she gazed around the room. “What is this place?” she asked, clasping her hands together in wonder. It made a warm glow spread through his chest as she felt the emotion that was his very centre. He smiled. She truly had grown since he'd last seen her, and Nightlight too, seemed older and wiser.

“This is my workshop...” Then he faltered, which was not a thing he did often. How could he break them the news of the lost village, of Pitch's latest rampage and all the changes that had come with their departure without ruining the moment? He decided not to.

The fact the original Santoff Claussen no longer existed could wait. For now, they had old friends to reunite with, and a new friend to meet.

.

There were fanfares by the time Jack reached the Pole. The elves did love their fanfares, and that was enough for Jack to understand that the flying ship's crew were honoured guests and not attackers. He ducked through the ceiling into the Globe Room, hiding in the rafters for a moment, just to spy. He caught a glimpse of the newly-issued Aurora through the window and frowned. Confusing, but probably the easiest way to get them all there.

Unfortunately he didn't manage to gawk from a safe distance, because as soon as he looked back at the room, there was someone pale and glowy right in his damn face.

He yelped, flailing as he fell backwards off his rafter. The Wind reached out to catch him, but didn't quite make it in time. Jack found himself hanging upside down, suspended by a caught foot, hoodie half-off and revealing his pale, flat stomach. He huffed.

“Well, this is humiliating,” he said. He glanced up to see the pale, glowy someone looking at him, head tilted curiously.

“Jack!” North boomed, because the man had no idea what an indoor voice was. “You saw Aurora?”

Jack squashed the temptation to sarcastically wonder whether North was talking about the Disney Princess, because he only cottoned on once the joke got stale, and, well... he was upside down. “Nah, saw the flying ship thingy pass over NYC and I followed it. Much retro, so fairy, such steampunk, wow. I like it.” He looked up again. “You can put me down, glow stick, I can fly. Sort of.”

The youth hanging onto him – who would have been hot if Jack had any inclination towards guys that looked like less worldly, fey-in-a-totally-different-way versions of himself – frowned in confusion, but let him go anyway. Jack landed on North's console thingy, fixing his hoodie and cleared his throat. Now he noticed, there was also a young girl there, probably close to his own age, with unruly brown locks and a plain, dark orange winter outfit in an outdated Russian style, who was giving him a look of utmost curiosity. And a giant freaking goose, which was just _weird_.

“So, hi. What's with the Victorian sky pirate thing going on up there?” He pointed upwards, just for good measure, because even the most obvious could be lost on North, sometimes.

True to form, the old man looked puzzled for a moment, then punched his palm with his fist when comprehension dawned. “Yes, yes! We have old friends back! Friends we have been wanting you to meet for ages!” He placed a hand on the shoulders of both the glowy dude and Russian Hermione, but was interrupted by the thrum of dragonfly-like wings and angry grumbling.

“This had better be good, North!”

Ah, the traditional Pooka greeting.

Jack chuckled to himself. Bunnymund just wouldn't be the same if he didn't complain about everything and nothing. The Pooka didn't get far, though.

“Bunnymund! Toothiana!” the girl exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight. Toothiana squealed like a fangirl in front of Tom Hiddleston and zoomed into the girl, almost knocking her over in her eagerness to hug. Bunnymund was now ruffling the glowy dude's hair with a decidedly uncharacteristic fondness, and Jack couldn't help the surge of jealousy that rose in his chest at that. The youth gave him an odd look, as if he didn't quite understand who or even what Jack was. Jack pointedly ignored both him and the feeling he was being x-rayed.

“It's-so-good-to-see-you-again-Moon-above-we-missed-you- _so_ -much-how-have-you-been-where-did-you-go-what-did-you-see-oh-my-pearly-whites-this-is- _wonderful_!” Toothiana was twittering a mile a minute, darting around in overexcited geometric patterns and waving her hands.

“You've all changed so much,” the girl said, beaming. “Why, Toothiana, I barely recognised you!”

Toothiana pouted. “Have I really changed that much?” she asked, frowning. Bunnymund chuckled.

“We both look different, Sheila,” he said.

Jack felt decidedly out of the loop, here. He'd figured out these two were someone important, but obviously not important enough for him to know about them. It was pretty annoying, although he never would have admitted it out loud. If there was one thing he hated, it was being kept in the dark. So he cleared his throat. Loudly. He managed to make the four he knew look sort of guilty.

“Introductions?” he prompted with a small hand movement.

“Oh, certainly!” The girl stepped forward and, of all things, curtsied. “I am Katherine, the Guardian of Imagination, and this is Nightlight, the Guardian of Courage.” The goose honked indignantly, making Katherine giggle. “And Kailash, my snow goose.”

Jack blinked. It was as if everything had fallen into place. He nodded politely back. “Jackson Overland Frost, Guardian of Fun and Herald of Winter.” He held out a hand, but it wasn't taken. In fact, Nightlight stood between Jack and Katherine, frowning slightly. “Oooook, well, nice to meet you.”

Maybe not Nightlight, but Katherine seemed ok, if a little old-fashioned.

“How long has it really been? Why are you all so different?” Katherine asked. “Why, Bunnymund, you and Toothiana have changed completely!”

Bunnymund cleared his throat. “In Toothiana's case, I believe it's due to the shifting perceptions of society towards her and the definition of Tooth Fairy, and in my case... well... Carked it, came back like this.” He shrugged, and Jack snorted into his hand.

“Carked it?” Katherine echoed in bewilderment.

“Came back as a fair dinkum Aussie,” Jack said in a terrible accent, making Bunnymund elbow him in fond disgust. Katherine's bewilderment worsened. It was almost cute.

“This should probably be discussed over tea!” Toothiana said, clapping her hands. Most everyone agreed.

.

North's huge, comfy den probably hadn't ever seen so many people in one room. Bunnymund and Toothiana had taken up one large, squishy couch while Jack perched cross-legged on the arm at Bunnymund's elbow, the furthest from the great roaring fire. Across on the other couch were Nightlight and Katherine, while North took up his great armchair like a king. Finally, Sandy floated on his own cloud of dreamsand.

Jack had heard tales of the old fights against Pitch, and a bit about Katherine and Nightlight, but never enough to satisfy (and, honestly, he felt like kicking himself for not immediately figuring out it was them), at least not about the whole. He'd had to coax stories of his previous incarnation from Bunnymund with blackmail, assured favours of a certain kind and general annoyance, and he couldn't get a word from Toothiana on any memories that hadn't been his own. Sandy liked to talk, but sometimes Jack simply couldn't keep up with him, no matter how hard he concentrated. North was the only one who spoke at length of the times the Guardians called the Dark Ages (which, for them, apparently did not coincide with Anglo-Saxons and a lack of written documents), and then usually about his own feats, with much bluster and self-aggrandisement in the customary Nicholas St. North fashion.

Now, it was all different. Here were things he hadn't even known, things no one had told him about, and he felt a little bitter about, but he took consolation in the fact that Katherine and Nightlight didn't know them either. He learnt about the death of Ombric Shalazar (which had had Katherine in tears) and the destruction of the original Santoff Claussen. He learnt about the fall of the Lunar Lamadary, and how the last Lunar Lama now lived alone as a hermit in the Himalayas, mourning and praying. He learnt about how North had built his workshop and filled the world with Wonder; how Sandy had built his Sand Castle that floated above the world and travelled with it; how the new Punjam Hy Loo became Tooth Palace; how Pitch the Nightmare King had become _this_ Pitch, the _new_ Pitch, Pitch Black, and...

And he learnt how Bunnymund had become _his_ Bunnymund. How he'd died and the Earth had taken him, made him its protector, its lifeblood. How Australia had birthed him anew, still a Pooka, but different. Jack wished Bunnymund had told him before. There was so much he still had to learn about E. Aster Bunnymund, he didn't think the rest of time would be enough.

He learnt a lot over chocolate milk that night, and it wasn't until both he and Toothiana yawned in unison that he realised how late it truly was.

“We should continue tomorrow,” North said, standing up and stretching, his spine cracking like gunfire. “Is late, and is not good to go along on little sleep.”

Katherine rubbed at her eyes. “I do agree, Nicholas,” she said. “Will you give up sweet dreams, Sanderson?” she asked. Sandy raised a sleepy thumbs-up.

Bunnymund was the next to rise, yawning in that strange, rabbity way he had. “Home, Frostbite?” he asked.

“No, no! You will all stay here!” North ordered, in a tone that allowed no leeway for token protest, even though Bunnymund opened his mouth to vehemently decline the offer. Jack couldn't have cared less. It wasn't often that he managed to feel so tired just by talking and listening (mostly listening) and the idea of a bed anywhere was a welcome thing.

He dragged Bunnymund away to what North called their designated quarters – because he did that, he made bedrooms for them, taking the time and care to decorate them in a way they might like while still fitting in to the general décor of Santoff Claussen itself, because North was nothing if not generous – bidding them all a goodnight. He was asleep as soon as he hit the bed after Bunnymund had closed the door behind them.

.

 

Breakfast at North's was cookies. Ok, the breakfast cereal kind, which Jack found weird, being a Froot Loops sort of guy, but some form of cookieness nonetheless. Toothiana looked mightily disapproving, Katherine looked bewildered and Nightlight didn't facially emote much anyway. Bunnymund didn't look very enthusiastic either.

“ _Muesli_ , North,” he demanded. North huffed, as if muesli was a personal affront to his existence, but he placed a pack on the table anyway. Jack just tucked into his cookie cereal, ignoring Toothiana's squeaks of discomfort.

“Jack, your _teeth_ ,” she pleaded, hovering slightly above her chair with worry. He raised an eyebrow. He'd never actually broken the news he'd never brushed his teeth in three hundred years to her, and now probably wasn't the time.

“Sugar is an important part of a diet,” he said instead. “Y'know, for energy.”

“Sugar highs, y'mean,” Bunnymund said archly, earning a glare from Jack.

“You all slept well, I hope,” Katherine said, wisely changing the subject before Toothiana could have an apoplectic fit.

“Like a log,” said Jack, mouth full. “Even with the 'Roo snoring like a chainsaw.”

Katherine's puzzled expression was priceless. “Why, between you and Bunnymund I can scarcely understand anyone anymore!” she exclaimed.

“You've been away two hundred years, right? You've got a lot to catch up on,” Jack said. His eyes lit up suddenly. “All the movies! All the TV series! The music! The comics! The _internet_!”

“You're not letting Katherine on the internet,” Bunnymund growled. “It'll scar her for life.”

“Just the cute kitten videos? Or the dance remixes?” Jack pleaded. “ _They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard! They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard! Gard-gard-gard-gard!”_

Bunnymund groaned, burying his face in his paws, but Jack blithely ignored him.

“You have a wonderful journey ahead of you,” Jack assured the two seated across from him. “Doctor Who and the Walking Dead, Marvel superheroes and My Little Pony, lolcatz and badfic and _what does the fox say?_ ”

Sandy, promptly, grabbed one of North's wandering elves and rang it enthusiastically.

“I hate you all,” Bunnymund mumbled, half-muffled by his paws. Jack patted him consolingly on the back. He didn't mean it at all, of course.

Across the table, a throat was cleared. “If I may be so bold as to ask... what _is_ the internet?” Katherine asked innocently. Jack's grin could only be described as diabolical.

“ _The internet is for porn! The internet is for porn! Grab your d-!_ ”

Bunnymund clamped a paw over his mouth before he could say anything more. “I swear, Frost, if you utter another peep...”

Jack squirmed out of Bunnymund's vice-like grip. “You'll what? Make me sleep on the couch?” he mocked. “Come on, I'm only kidding. Besides, I really don't think Kit-Kat knows what porn is.” He waggled his eyebrows evilly.

The explosion of furious thought made the heads of everyone present reel as if they'd been physically struck. Jack gripped his skull, gritting his teeth and keening in the back of his throat.

“Nightlight, _no_!” Katherine cried. When Jack looked up, eyes watering from the pain, he saw an expression on the youth's face that didn't suit him one iota.

“What the bloody hell was that for, Nightlight?” Bunnymund demanded, rubbing his head.

The thought that followed, an angry flare in everyone's mind, was that Jack was not to be allowed near Katherine ever again.

“What the hell?” Jack protested. Nightlight's light shone brighter, a furious supernova of whiteness, and Jack backed away.

“Fine, dude, be that way,” he snapped. Storming from the room, he slammed the huge oak door behind him, which was a feat in and of itself, leaving a blast of icy wind in his wake. Bunnymund groaned, muttered something, and went after him.

Katherine whirled around, scowling something awful.

“I don't believe I am your property, Nightlight! You simply _cannot_ order people around in such a fashion!”

_I won't allow him to speak to you like that!_

Katherine made a noise like an angry cat and stormed off herself, although she refrained from slamming the door. She was too polite for that. Nightlight made to rush after her, but a stream of dreamsand around his wrist gently kept him back. He looked around, and Sandy shook his head, the symbol in the air above him a thermometer with the mercury line descending.

“Give her time to cool down,” Toothiana echoed, giving him a summary pat on the shoulder. Nightlight merely sat down, puzzled. What had he done wrong?

.

Jack was livid. Bunnymund knew better than to try and calm him down when he needed to rant and shoot shards of ice at things. Thank the Moon for the egg warriors and their willingness to defend the Warren's delicate plant life from angry frozen bullets.

“What the _hell_ is with him?!” Jack snarled, stamping his foot and spreading frost across Bunnymund's precious grass.

“Jealous, most likely,” the Pooka mused, inspecting an apple tree that probably needed pruning. Jack made a face halfway between disgusted and bemused.

“That's just freaking insane,” he stated firmly. “I mean... she's a _girl_! And... _you and me_...” He flailed his hands helplessly. Bunnymund chuckled.

“Well, we're all unreasonable when it comes to things like this. Probably just needs a sit down and a chinwag, really.”

Jack huffed, kicking at the grass and spreading frost from his toes again. “Well, he won't talk to me. He hates me. This is _so_ not fair.”

“This is also just a huge misunderstanding,” said Bunnymund. “You've had to drag me kicking and screaming into the modern age, and look how badly I took that. Now imagine Nightlight, who's never been one for being a normal human being, mainly because he ain't one, and Katherine, who left Earth about two centuries ago and doesn't know anything more modern than a mangle. You may be normal for nowadays, but to them, you're coming on far too strong.”

That gave Jack pause for a moment. “I guess... but even if I _do_ try and explain, Nightlight, like I said, kind of, uh, _despises_ me. So... what am I gonna do there? We're gonna have to work together, and if we don't talk it's gonna be Awkward Central.”

“Leave it to me, North and Tooth,” Bunnymund said. “We know 'em, we'll handle it.”

.

Bunnymund wondered how he got himself into these situations. It was probably because he was in a relationship now, he thought, answering his own question, and you tended to do that sort of thing if you loved and cared about someone.

He found Nightlight in the workshop, sitting on a rafter, emanating an air of complete dejection. It then struck Bunnymund just how much Jack and Nightlight were similar: both the kind of person you'd describe as a pale slip of a youth, older than they looked, with eerily pale eyes... Bunnymund shrugged it off. It felt weird to compare Nightlight to Jack, given how completely different they actually were. Because Nightlight was Nightlight and Jack was, well... _Jack_.

“G'day, mate,” he said, giving him a grin. Nightlight looked down with a generally confused look. Bunnymund fought not to roll his eyes. Strine had wormed itself so completely into his speech after... _that_ that he barely noticed it. “Katherine got you up?”

Nightlight flickered brightly for a moment, then petered out, and if that wasn't pathetic, Bunnymund didn't know what was.

“Get down here, we need to have a bit of a chinwag,” said the Pooka, beckoning the youth down. Nightlight cocked his head curiously, but did as he was told, landing beside Bunnymund with no sound at all.

“Let's take a walk,” Bunnymund added, placing a hand on Nightlight's shoulder and tapping the floor with his foot.

Bunnymund took him to New Zealand. He liked New Zealand, almost as much as he loved Oz, he liked the vividness of the greenery and the purity of the land beneath his paws. There was something otherworldly in these antipodal lands, something that tied to the magic of the Earth itself, his own. And it was a nice, quiet place for a talk. Not too many parrots except for a kakapo, which was doing who knew what as it galumphed around happily.

“So,” Bunnymund began, scratching his chin, “it's about Jack Frost.”

No one could have missed the vicious surge of light that accompanied one, furious thought: _Don't speak to me of him!_ Bunnymund's withering look silenced him – metaphorically speaking – and the Pooka continued.

“I know about you and Katherine.” Nightlight gave him such an alarmed look, with such brightly glowing cheeks, Bunnymund almost felt sorry for him. He suppressed a chuckle. “It's always been obvious, mate. No one's surprised. But that's not what I'm talking about. Katherine's... your sweetheart, shall we say?” Keep it simple, old style. “And I know it seems like Jackie boy's been encroaching on what you'd define 'your territory'.” Bunnymund kept it between practically audible air quotes. He didn't really like defining anyone as someone's territory – personal possessiveness that was agreed on by both parties involved aside, he added with a mental cough – and he was certain the 'territory' implied would smack him one for it if she heard. “But Jack's... not interested. _Believe_ me.”

Nightlight frowned. _Then why is he talking to her so openly? So boldly, he takes such liberties! Pet names and bawdy jokes!_

Bunnymund waved the statements away like smoke. “That's just Jack. It's a different time, Jack's seen three hundred years of change while you've been off-planet, and... well, modernity allows for a lot of boundaries to be blurred into things unrecognisable.”

_I don't follow, Bunnymund._

Bunnymund rubbed the back of his head. “Well... look, why don't you talk to Jack yourself? He's not happy with the fact you don't like him, and it's not my place to explain for him, even though he'd let me.”

“Why?” Nightlight asked, actually using his voice for once.

“Why what?”

“Why would he let you explain?” Nightlight prompted. Bunnymund blinked. Aw, crikey. He hadn't actually been prepared to explain this.

“Well... look, he'll be able to explain it better than I can.” He shrugged. “You'll get it then. Promise?”

Nightlight stared at him with those eerily pallid green eyes. The more he stared, the more Bunnymund realised how different they were to Jack's in not just colour. Whereas Jack's were ice that sparkled with mischief, Nightlight's were ethereal, deep and burdened with duty. He placed a hand on Nightlight's shoulder.

“Promise?” he repeated.

Nightlight finally nodded.

.

Katherine was angry with Nightlight. It did not happen often – in fact, she could count all the times it had happened on the fingers of one hand, for Nightlight was not the type of being one could easily be angry with – but she was now. She was trying to read in the library, and failing miserably. The words on the page blurred into one stormy cloud of letters that meant nothing.

She'd also noticed the books now were very different. Gone were the smooth leather covers and the painstakingly typed pages you could feel the letters on. These were slim books with flimsy covers, with raised titles. The authors' names were large, as if they shouted for attention, and there were pictures on the front – all different! - and descriptions on the back. So strange!

She'd picked the first one she'd put her hand on, ignoring title, picture and author (though the name was once more cried aloud from the cover) and sat down, but her mind kept bouncing off the pages and back to Nightlight, and just how angry she was with him.

She could understand his own rage perfectly well. She was quite sure if Jack had been a pretty girl and had spoken to Nightlight with such forthright openness, she too would have been angry and jealous. Nightlight was as easy to read to her as a book, and she'd felt the jealousy coming off him in almost tangible waves. It had been foolish of him – how silly to think she might be interested in Jack! - but she'd read enough to know matters of the heart were not necessarily governed by reason.

“Good book?”

Katherine startled and looked up in shock. Jack Frost gave her a guilty grin, hands held up in front of him like a shield.

“Whoa, sorry! Didn't mean to make you jump. And I know I'm not supposed to talk to you, total coincidence, I swear.”

Katherine sighed. “Nightlight isn't allowed to order anyone around like that, and I may speak to whomever I please.” Jack affected a small bow, and she giggled. “However... I don't know if the book is any good. I haven't been concentrating all too well.”

“Too much on your mind?” Jack asked, taking the armchair opposite hers and crossing his legs beneath him. She would have scolded him, but then she realised he had no shoes, she had no power to dictate what he did, and she suspected North wouldn't have minded. From the way he'd spoken of Jack after Nightlight's tirade, he cared deeply for the boy in a paternal way.

“Far too much, yes,” she admitted.

“Well, I might've read it, my books tend to end up in weird places. Show me the cover and I'll tell you whether to read it or not.”

Katherine was pleasantly surprised at that statement. Boys were not always avid readers, in her experience. They preferred to be told the stories, the strain of reading itself delegated to others. She lifted the book and Jack chuckled.

“ _A Game of Thrones_? Really? I mean, _awesome_ book, but it's kind of... dark,” he mused.

“Dark?” Katherine wondered aloud.

“Yeah. Lots of death and blood and sex and everyone you like will die, no exception. Not a cheerful book.”

Katherine snapped it shut, as much as the thin cover would snap, and placed it gingerly to the side. “People write such things?” she asked, bewildered. Stories were supposed to be cheerful, adventurous and always have happy endings! Jack shrugged.

“All the time. Gritty Scandi noir, grimdark fantasy, dystopian sci-fi, post-apocalyptic wastelands... I've got a good one for you, though.” He stood and headed to the bookshelves, scanning them pensively. “Here!”

He returned and handed her a slim black book with a thin red ring on the front. The title was _The Hobbit_ in simple white letters.

“This is more like a fairy tale, you'll like it. There are other books after it, and a couple before. They're really good. Let's leave _A Song of Ice and Fire_ to another time.” He picked up the book she'd chosen earlier and opened it to the front cover, where she could just see the name 'Jackson Overland Frost' scrawled in blue ink. “Yeah, figured it was mine. This is supposed to be in the Warren.” He frowned slightly.

“The Warren? Do you stay there?” Katherine asked. Jack hadn't ventured many things about himself the day before, and she was curious about him. She knew so much about the others, and so little about their newest friend.

“Yeah, practically my home,” he said, perching the book on the arm of his chair and folding into it again. “Even got a key.” He reached inside his hooded shirt and pulled out what looked like a wooden egg on a thin leather strap.

“My goodness, Bunnymund does trust you, doesn't he? He's changed so much since we were here, he's so open and emotional. Why, I believe he's far more in touch with his human side now! Is he your mentor?”

Jack blinked at her, then burst out laughing. Katherine felt slightly hurt by that. It was never a pleasant thing, to be laughed at.

“What's so funny?” she asked. Jack shook his head, still chuckling.

“Nothing, nothing,” he replied. “No, he is most definitely _not_ my mentor, though he does teach me things, I guess. He's, um... my boyfriend?”

Katherine cocked her head in confusion. What in the Moon's name was a 'boyfriend'? “I don't quite follow,” she confessed, smiling weakly. Jack, to her surprise, looking mildly embarrassed. His cheeks seemed to glitter when he moved his head, and she realised that they were covered in a delicate layer of frost. Was this his form of blushing?

“Uh, we're, um... ugh, how do I explain this without looking like a total creep?” He kneaded his temples in an odd display of, she supposed, frustration. “We're together. We're... not married, not affianced, but around that general area?” He gestured feebly.

Katherine gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. And there she'd thought Bunnymund and Toothiana...! How silly she felt just then, and her furiously red cheeks showed it, she supposed.

“I had no idea,” she mumbled. And indeed she hadn't, had she? She'd never, in her wildest dreams, thought that two beings of the male persuasion would have such thoughts about one another. And indeed, she barely gave it a thought that one was a Pooka and one a boy. The age difference, also, seemed immense.

“Well, we don't go waving it around like a flag,” Jack said with half a grin. “Except when the Groundhog's at a party.”

“The Groundhog?”

“He's a jerk. You'll hate him. We all do,” Jack explained quickly. “But, y'know, some people get weirded out by the 'dead kid and giant bunny' shtick. Spirits are weird.” He shrugged.

“To be honest,” said Katherine, slowly, as if the words were quite heavy to say, which, she imagined, they were, “I find it stranger that you would like another male in such a way.”

Jack snorted. “Girls _really_ aren't my thing. No offence, but no. Just... no.” He shuddered gently. “And Bunny, well...” He grinned, his cheeks once more brindled with frost, and Katherine giggled.

“Oh, I expect Bunnymund would be quite charming,” she admitted. Jack sniggered.

“Yeah. Tall, mature, nice muscles, and _dat accent_...” He bit his lip and fanned himself, making her laugh again.

“Oh, the _accent_!” she remarked suddenly. “He never sounded like that before. And the turns of phrase he uses! And my, he practically goes around _naked_!” They had all changed, but Bunnymund most of all. It had been quite shocking.

“Well, you won't get _me_ complaining about the last part,” said Jack, his grin back in place. “But, yeah, he sounds really Australian, doesn't he? I've... only ever known him like that, to be honest. Couldn't understand a word he said the first time we met, but I figured it was angry because he was yelling.” He shrugged. “You get used to it. He always talks like that, now.”

When last they'd been here, Australia had been a land of strange animals, wise tribesmen and convicts. Perhaps things had changed there as well. She had a suspicion they had. She leant forward and listened to Jack ramble, laughing at his jokes.

.

Talking with Katherine was pretty nice. She was old-fashioned, but she was sweet and funny, and it was always good to laugh.

Of course, that was when Nightlight reappeared. He took one look at the both of them and lunged, glowing angrily.

“Whoa, what the hell?” Jack peered around five-foot-something of spectral youth to where Bunnymund was standing with his arms folded and an annoyed expression. “Didn't you explain _anything_ , Cottontail?” he demanded.

Bunnymund frowned. “Hey, hold on, mate! It's your business, not mine!”

Jack scowled something brutal. He got up, pushing Nightlight away as if the glowy kid were a mere annoyance, and marched over to Bunnymund, leaving frost wherever he stomped. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. So, what, what _we_ have is just _my_ business? Excuse me?” He pressed a finger into Bunnymund's chest. “Last I checked, relationships involved _two_ people, Pooka.”

“But your sexuality is -”

Jack snapped his hand like a beak to shut him up. “That, Bunny, is _stupid_. For God's sake, we're _together_. What's my business is your business, and what's your business is my business. Fair is fair, right? It's not as if it's a _secret_. I'm not _ashamed_ of it!”

“Oh, so I'm just supposed to magically guess your intent, now, am I?” Bunnymund snapped.

“Well, I would _hope_ ,” Jack put all the possible emphasis on the word, enough to make the Pooka flinch ever so slightly, “that you'd figure it out on your own.”

Bunnymund groaned. “I'm not a mind reader.” He glowered at Jack. Jack's gaze never wavered.

“Neither am I, but I always have to guess what _you're_ thinking! 'Is Bunny busy?' 'Will he give a fuck about me, today?' 'Is it too near Easter?' 'Will he be angry or happy that I woke him up?'. You can see how that can be a problem! I never know what's up with you!”

“Oh, so now my schedule is a problem? My _holiday_ is a problem?” Bunnymund's fur bristled. “If you don't like it, bugger off!”

Jack took a step back at that, and his face changed completely. They argued almost every week – little things, snappy banter, just to keep each other on their toes – but he'd never... he'd never said anything like that. Jack lowered his gaze, his grip on his staff tightening.

“Fine. So you don't want me, now?”

Bunnymund grimaced. “Wait, Jack, I didn't mean that...”

“No?” Jack's head snapped up, his expression livid. “You just said it to my _face_! God damn it, Bunny, what the hell do you _want_ from this relationship?” He ran a hand through his hair, huffed and made a gesture of surrender. How the hell did they get from normal argument to relationship crisis in five sentences?

Bunnymund, for his part, was rubbing his face. “Sometimes I wonder what _you_ want. You've got nothing to gain from this, tying yourself to me.”

Katherine and Nightlight were forgotten. It was as if Jack and Bunnymund were in the eye of their own, private storm, the world around them vanished, a mere memory. Jack folded his arms.

“Don't say stupid things,” he said bluntly. “You give me hope, you give me a home, you make me happy, and you're hot as hell. What more could I want?”

The Pooka's ears drooped backward, his head tilting in the way it always did when he was embarrassed. “Right.” He didn't sound convinced. Jack punched him in the arm, for good measure.

“You're ancient, Bunny, you're supposed to be _wise_!” he said. He could feel the atmosphere lightening, and he tried as hard as he could to keep it on those tracks. This he could deal with. Light-hearted banter he could make work.

“Yeah, well, I never had much practice at this sort of thing,” Bunnymund grumbled. Jack chuckled and, just like that, the tension broke.

“Well, I'm sticking around. So grow a brain and start thinking for two.”

Bunnymund folded his arms and huffed. “Fine. Whatever.” But there was a twitch to his whiskers that Jack knew meant he was fighting back a smile.

“Ok, then, now _that's_ over.” Jack turned on his heel and strode over to where Nightlight stood with Katherine. He moved slightly, in front of her, and Jack had to force himself not to roll his eyes. “Listen, glow stick,” he said. “I'm really not interested in your girlfriend. Really, _really_ not interested. For one thing, she's a girl. I don't like girls.” He paused. “Well, I like _girls_ , I mean, I have friends who are girls, but I don't like _like_ girls. For another, I'm dating the rabbit.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Me and the bunny. Dating. In a relationship. Carrying on. Stepping out together. Whatever you want to call it, me and the Pooka are _together_ as a _couple_. So I'm definitely not going to make moves on your oh-so-precious Katherine, ok? We're just _friends_ , we're only ever going to _be_ friends, and you should _really_ get over yourself.”

Nightlight stared at him, almost as if he couldn't comprehend how someone wouldn't want Katherine. At first he looked suspicious. Then he looked over Jack's shoulder to Bunnymund, his expression more confused than anything else. When Bunnymund nodded, he looked to Katherine, who gave him a small, apologetic smile.

“That was what we were talking about before you so violently barged in, Nightlight,” she said. She tucked her hand through his wiry arm and her smile brightened to something more reassuring. “Don't worry, dear Nightlight, I'm not going anywhere.”

It was only then that Nightlight managed relief. He huffed quietly, shaking his head, and turned to Jack.

 _You should have said so from the beginning_ , he said, or thought. Bit of both, really. Jack shrugged contritely.

“Guess I'm just used to everyone knowing,” he said. “It's pretty damn obvious to anyone with a gaydar.”

_I have no idea what that is._

Jack sniggered. “Oh, am I gonna have _fun_ with you,” he said, waggling his eyebrows mischievously. Katherine narrowed her eyes.

“Am I the one that's going to have to be jealous?” she asked. Jack opened his mouth to answer, but he never got round to talking, just yelping as he was lifted bodily off ground and tossed over a broad, furry shoulder.

“Right, 'nuff yabbering,” Bunnymund declared. “You're grounded, ice block, as of now.”

Jack dangled, managing to do even that with an easy arrogance, and squeezed the fluffy tail that was just inches away because really, who could resist that? It twitched, and Jack laughed. This was familiar territory, as was all the run-up to make up sex. With a tap of a great grey foot, a tunnel opened and they were gone.

.

Katherine stared at the tunnel, which had now closed over itself and Jack's laughter, leaving a tiny purple daisy in its wake. An aster, she knew as much.

“Goodness,” she said, “how things have changed.”

Then she turned to Nightlight and gave him a delicate kiss on the lips. His lips were always cool, like moonlight.

“You do know, dear Nightlight, that there's no one else but you?”

Nightlight's glow seemed to concentrate on his cheeks, and it made her laugh.

.

It was much later that evening, and the Guardians had reunited at the Pole. Katherine had enquired worriedly after Jack's slight limp, but both he and Bunnymund had looked so embarrassed she'd dropped the matter entirely. Bunnymund was grateful for that.

“Did everything get sorted?” Toothiana asked. “I was going to go talk to Katherine, but she stopped me before I'd even started. She said she'd talked to Jack.”

Bunnymund nodded. “Everything's apples,” he said. He looked over to where Jack was talking to Katherine, Nightlight and North. It was good Jack finally had someone his own age to interact with, friends, not just family that seemed so much older than him. Toothiana smiled.

“I'm glad. It's not good to fight amongst ourselves. We're family, after all. Family shouldn't fight.”

He agreed with her there.

.

They were all in Jamie's garden when he found them, kicking around a soccer ball and trying to avoid hitting Monty in the face – which was a trying thing, since Monty was the kind of kid that was a heavy-thing-in-the-face magnet. He landed on the fence, grinning when they all rushed over. They were growing so quickly now, it was eerie, he could practically see it happening before his eyes.

“Hey, guys!” he said, crouching down. He didn't miss the way Pippa tucked her hair shyly back and lowered her gaze. Whoa, puppy crush right there. Whoops.

“Hi, Jack!” said Jamie breathlessly. “What's up? It's not winter yet.”

“Actually, I'm not here for that.” Though damn, it would have been _fun_. A freak snowstorm in October, just to keep the county on its toes, but he'd done that last year, and gotten into a bit of trouble with Mother Nature. She could be really _mean_ when she wanted to. “Got a couple of people for you to meet.”

“Really?” Caleb tried to peer over the fence.

“Yup!”

“Can we come out now?” Katherine asked. She was crouching down behind the fence, using her hands to stifle her giggles.

“Yeah, think so,” Jack said with a grin. Katherine straightened, tucking her hair back and beaming. Nightlight also appeared, but from the tree he'd been perched in. The kids stared.

“Who're you?” asked Claude. Katherine curtsied again. She'd discarded her dark orange Russian gear for a simpler, pale yellow pinafore dress over a puffy-sleeved shirt which definitely suited her, and she'd tied her hair back into a long ponytail that fell down her back in a bushy, brown cascade.

“Katherine, Guardian of Imagination,” she announced. “And this is Nightlight, Guardian of Courage.”

He inclined his head in a shallow bow, smiling serenely. Jack called out a name as he pointed to each child with his staff, privately thinking he should get a whistle and get them to line up like the Von Trapp kids, and so the introductions were completed.

“I thought there were only _five_ Guardians?” Pippa said suspiciously. She was eyeing Katherine as if sizing up the competition, which meant Jamie hadn't mentioned the little thing about _him-and-Bunny_ to the other kids.

“Actually, they've been away for a while,” Jack said. “Only just came back.”

“You look really _normal_ ,” Cupcake said to Katherine, who laughed.

“Why, I suppose I _do_ , compared to everyone else!” she exclaimed. “But I assure you, I _am_ a Guardian.”

 _She tells the best stories_ , Nightlight said in his mind-voice, which Jack still hadn't figured out entirely.

“Stories?” Monty asked curiously. Contrary to Pippa, he was looking at Katherine as if she was the loveliest thing to ever walk the planet. It was kind of cute, in a puppyish sort of way.

“Would you like to hear one?” Katherine asked. There was a chorus of agreements, and she rounded them up to sit them on Jamie's porch, around her in a semi-circle. She would have made a great teacher, if she'd been human.

Jack and Nightlight remained on the fence (literally), watching the scene. It looked quite idyllic against the reddish-brown of the autumn leaves, a young woman seated with a gaggle of enraptured children around her, weaving a tale of dragons and wizards and towers of shining crystal.

“These are the best times,” Jack stated. “No bad guys to fight, no world-saving to do. Just hanging out with the kids.”

Nightlight was looking at him, he could feel it. Jack turned, raising a eyebrow.

“What?”

Nightlight shook his head. “I think so too,” he murmured, out loud.


End file.
